Building eco-responsibility on values and trust
Workshop 4: Trust in our teams, how can we (as horizontal organizations) rely on our teams to get through crises? Trust is a way to experiment, to let go, to act quickly. Inviting collective intelligence to reach its full potential (Betina Van Meter)
The health crisis caused by the coronavirus has restored confidence to an absolutely decisive place in the organization of work, especially in horizontal structures. Indeed, how can one succeed in organizing himself and overcome the distance imposed by remote working without a solid and anchored trust in his collaborators?
The importance of trust is not limited to horizontal organizations only. The notion is also omnipresent in all companies. Lencioni’s pyramid, developed by the American management consultant of the same name in the early 2000s, places it as the essential first step in building a coherent and efficient team. But in the case of horizontal organizations, trust takes on a slightly different dimension: it is no longer hierarchical and vertical, but rather global and diffuse.
But what about trust in a distance working context, with no real contact and no daily routine? It seems to deteriorate after several weeks away from colleagues. Yet, paradoxically, distance meetings also bring their share of good surprises because of their imposed form: better listening, less interruption and therefore a greater sense of security for those who speak. Security and trust are essential for people to flourish, as Maslow’s pyramid reminds us. This obviously applies to work.
The strength of horizontal organizations in such a crisis environment lies precisely in this trust. More than anywhere else, employees know that they are contributing to a larger project. Responsibility for both success and failure will be collective. How then can we ensure that this trust is not eroded despite the contactless weeks? Transparency is certainly one of the keys to success. Trust is eroded when employees do not have the same level of information. However, the call for transparency must be well balanced, at the risk of having the reverse effects on the team. Report on everything? The risk is indeed that of a loss of autonomy for employees.
Real trust, on the other hand, is measured when one is able to trust others, even without having all the information. You know that they make the right trade-offs, but you don’t need to be consulted. From this point of view, the practice of feedback can be beneficial. Publicizing your work, your decisions, your doubts, allows you to solicit feedback and opinions, thus generating trust, while getting around the trap of inquisitive transparency. Feedback could also be a form of vulnerability, which is essential for genuine trust to emerge.
Perhaps it is precisely such vulnerability that is sorely lacking among the bosses of large corporations. Their approach is culturally the opposite and would rather resemble military behavior. It is also in this respect that the role of leaders is decisive, as well as the way they are perceived within the teams. The traditional business leader is selected from a competitive mold. What defines him? It is precisely the number of employees under his command. A paradigm 1000 leagues away from horizontal organizations whose challenge is precisely to do without managers. Or rather: that each and every one develops his or her leadership.
Workshop 6: The importance of values (trust, responsibility, etc.) for new generation organizations? Will a greater eco-responsibility be implemented? (Beat Vonlanthen)
It cannot be said often enough, but for the new generation of organizations, values have a decisive place. Collective intelligence is a blessing for the pioneers of these new organizations, but it is not enough to simply enact or invoke it. On the contrary, a favorable cultural breeding ground, shared values and a common horizon cannot be overlooked.
But what values are we talking about here? It is difficult to propose an exhaustive list, but it seems that some stand out from the rest. Whether it’s confidence in oneself and in one’s colleagues, the open-mindedness of each and every one and thus the ability to let oneself be drawn into new experiences: this is certainly an essential basis for the new generation of companies.
To go further, it seems important to understand that the group and the collective do not do everything. Far from it. A balance must be found between individualism and collectivism. Of course, respecting the standards of a group or team brings mutual benefits to those involved, but the individual still retains an important place. This is all the more true in such distance working contexts: reliability, responsibility and credibility at an individual level are essential to move forward, to develop a project together with serenity and efficiency.
Let’s not forget the values that must permeate the organization in order to really give it its societal added value. This requires a strong sense of ethics, but also of equity. The diversity and inclusion that result from this must also be key values, so that the collective identity that emerges from it can live up to the ambitions of the new generation. Companies and organizations can no longer be content to simply produce; they must now be bearers of meaning.
All these values and aptitudes are not self-evident and it is imperative that we do everything possible to ensure that they permeate all employees in their work. How can this be achieved? By focusing on education and training without restraint. This can be done directly within the organization: whether it takes the form of dedicated training, or increased awareness. But also more broadly, this new paradigm should be able to penetrate school curricula and education from an early age.
It is then up to leaders and managers to bring these values to life and consolidate them within the organization. This can be done by making them explicit, by engaging in a real work of clarification in the teams: what importance do these values have for each and every one of them? What does this imply for the organization? But it also obviously requires leaders and managers to set an example and to be in perfect and permanent adequacy with the said philosophy. This will have an even greater ripple effect.
